5:03 PM,
Jul. 2, 2013

Pedestrians walk by a Starbucks Coffee store in San Francisco, California.

Written by

Bruce Horovitz
USA TODAY

The coffee kingpin, which has been carefully but methodically evolving beyond coffee over the past several years, is quietly testing handcrafted soft-drink products - spiced root beer, ginger ale and a lemon ale - in some stores in the Atlanta and Austin markets.

The fizzy drinks, made by baristas with special carbonation machines, are sold at Starbucks prices. In some Atlanta locations, for example, a tall goes for $2.45 while the venti fetches $3.45. ...